Every market has unique opportunities and rules. The structure of healthcare marketing limits what you can do and how you can do it . You are limited to what you are allowed to say when marketing healthcare services.
There are a lot of challenges you are likely to face in healthcare marketing. What makes you stand out from the rest is how you navigate these challenges and succeed. Working out these challenges is essential to growing your healthcare business.
1- HIPAA Compliance
HIPAA compliance is a common issue in healthcare marketing. HIPAA is a set of strict regulations that touch on every aspect of the healthcare industry, right from the provision of healthcare to the sales.
Marketing healthcare in most countries is still a challenge. It was illegal to market hospitals and practices in the US until the 1970s. In the US, healthcare marketers are normally restricted from using specific marketing tools, like re-marketing ads to protect health data and user’s credentials.
The solution to HIPAA compliance is asking your marketing team to go through the regulations. This way, you can ensure your staff does not share patient information, which may cost your business a lot.
2- Public perception of healthcare
Public perception of healthcare services is another challenge most healthcare marketers face today. Most people are not fond of the healthcare industry. Finding a doctor you can trust with your health is a major issue, and few patients are willing to walk that extra mile.
Most people remain skeptical of the healthcare industry because of the many misleading medical adverts. It will take time before the public learns to trust any medical advert again. However, through inbound marketing, healthcare practices can convince the public of their services.
The solution to a skeptical audience is to humanize your marketing message. When you have a human element in your healthcare marketing content, you can create a positive relationship with the message, and people will begin trusting your brand.
3- High cost of marketing
The high cost of marketing healthcare is another major challenge most pharmaceutical firms and healthcare providers go through. This is perhaps a reason why most clinics and hospitals don’t give healthcare marketing a priority in their budgets.
Hospitals should differentiate between the digital-driven and consumer-oriented healthcare market. When coming up with a budget, healthcare practices should allocate some funds towards marketing their services.
4- Power of reviews
Today, those seeking healthcare services will go online and read some reviews on a hospital before booking an appointment with a doctor. Today’s doctor knows that online reviews are essential when driving patients to your clinic.
A marketing professional can partner with doctors to help. Although no one can control a patient’s health, reducing the ambiguity and confusion of the healthcare experience is equally important.
If you want to drive more patients your way, you should be more concerned about quality healthcare as a doctor. Patient care and dedication to your patient’s well-being should come first.
Final Thoughts
Healthcare marketing faces a lot of challenges. We have looked at some of those challenges and how marketing professionals can come through to solve them.
